Having moved sideways for a long time, prices in the local European welded pipe market have switched to a downtrend over the past week. In this context, a Bulgarian steel producer’s offers for ERW pipes as per EN 10219 in its domestic market have decreased to €570-580/mt ($650-66/mt) ex-works. Meanwhile, the same producer’s welded pipe offers to European countries have declined by €10-15/mt mt over the past week. According to market sources, prices in the local European welded pipe market may decrease further in the short term as prices are still under pressure due to lower priced welded pipe offers to the region from other countries, although import quotas in the region have almost been exhausted.
The European Commission is expected to announce the preliminary result of its antidumping (AD) duty investigation against imports of welded tubes, pipes and hollow profiles from Macedonia, Russia and Turkey on April 28. Market sources state that the measures may be applied retroactively to include the three-month period before the announcement. This situation entails a risk for both European buyers and exporters from these three countries.